Mid-Semester Break and the Southern Island Tour (LOTS of pictures!)

Setting: Anne, her flatmate Natalie and their neighbor Erin embark on a journey of epic proportions (less than 12 hrs after Anne returned from Uni Games, no sleep that night)

Day 1: Bus ride from Dunedin to Picton, 12hrs up eastern coast. I was way too tired at that point to really care that much. We slept in a backpackers (hostel) large dorm called the “Mussel room.”

Day 2: Bus ride from Picton to Nelson in a sketchy “economy” bus through narrow, winding roads. We spent the afternoon in Nelson exploring the town and walking along the beach. The backpackers that night was phenomenal- called Tasman Backpackers. Free ice cream every night! The facilities were very clean, and welcoming. Big patio, kitchen, herb garden and of course, free ice cream. They allowed us to store our extra stuff while we went on our tramping trip.

Day 3: (Abel Tasman 1) We set out early to begin our 3 day tramping trip along the Abel Tasman’s Coastal Track. Abel Tasman is known as the “beach” national park, and the track is not overly difficult so it is relatively popular. We were lucky that with winter approaching, there were fewer people in the park. We took a bus from Nelson to the start of the track, with one of the best bus drivers I have ever had. His name was Renee and he gave this amazing commentary during the drive. He knew so much about the area, including agricultural practices, social events and important people. There was plenty of scathing sarcasm and resentment for the urbanization of the area and the lack of sustainable living. He said that he had a lady write the bus company a letter describing how she had been offended by his commentary. The three of us vowed to write the company a much more praise filled letter soon. The first part of the track was smooth and almost flat, it is a common area for day hikers. We camped just passed the large campground so as to be away from all the people. It was really cold at night, but stayed sunny and warm throughout the day.

Day 4: (Abel Tasman 2) We set of somewhat late, not finishing our oatmeal or wanting to leave the campsite-on-the-beach till about 9:30am. There were two 400m climbs throughout the day, but through the hills and mostly avoiding the beaches. We passed through several little…villages?...with lodges and beach homes. Nothing terribly fancy, but maybe holiday homes. One lodge in particular, was set up with a café serving $30 meals, a huge organic garden, and resort-like hotel. Kind of a strange thing to see walking out of the bush, all dirty and carrying our big packs. There were also two major estuary crossings that could only be completed 2 hours before/after low tides. We timed them well enough, and had lunch by the first one while we waited for the water to recede below our waists. The second we waited on the beach of the major camp for about 30 min, and then walked across open clam shells across the estuary. It was a 20min walk and it hurt, but we were almost to our little campsite. Most people make the crossing in the early morning instead. We arrived to a site tucked away in the trees with a private beach! Well, private until after dark, when a few random hikers wandered in. At least we got to cook dinner and watch the sunset without anyone else around- it was amazing. Dinner was spaghetti with broccoli…. Lots of broccoli. I didn’t plan well enough to have an eating utensil and so I had been eating with a plastic fork- very difficult to eat spaghetti with. That night we made an awesome camp fire and heated water to put in bottles for warming our sleeping bags.

Day 5: (Abel Tasman 3) We got up very early (6ish) to watch the sunrise and get a good start on the remaining 1.5 hours of the trail. After a breakfast of ½ cooked oats and pears (our fuel ran out the night before trying to boil the water with a stiff breeze) we did some yoga on the beach in front of the sunrise and headed off to our final destination where we caught the water taxi back to the start of the trail. The water taxi was a blast and it was interesting to recap all we had traveled as we passed it on the water, even though it took only 2hrs to travel what had taken us 2 days to walk! There was even a dolphin playing around one of the boats. Back in town, after another bus ride with Renee and a well deserved ice cream, we rented a car at the airport, managed not to crash while driving on the left side of the road, picked up our stuff from the backpackers, showered, and headed NW to a place called Golden Bay. The intention was to stay with Natalie’s friend’s flat mate’s aunt and uncle’s house in a township called Tanaka. The reasons for the trip, which was slightly out of the way, were that Golden Bay has some of the most beautiful beaches in the country, and that Albie and Felicity have an almost completely sustainable house. Expecting just to set up our tent in their backyard, they surprised us (being complete strangers) to dinner, beds, breakfast, a tour of their systems and hours of wonderful conversation! They have detailed explanations of their sustainable projects on their website (click on Albie's Projects link). PLEASE PLEASE check it out! GET INSPIRED! Maybe there is something you can do at home to live more sustainably? It’s the little things that count. I’m excited to start an organic vegetable garden and look into ways to incorporate solar energy when I get home.

Day 6: We left Albie and Fil’s with hugs and well wishes. We headed on a quick tour of Golden Bay by stopping by for a walk along Farewell Spit and Wharariki Beach, which was covered in dunes and sculpted cliff faces. Just magnificent- we had lunch in the sand, fighting off sandflies (NZ’s version of mosquitos), wind, sandy bread, and nosey gulls. Then came the 4 hour drive to Murchison to spend the night with the Kayak club, who had been paddling there all week. It was their “court night” where all the stupid things people did on paddling trips were brought forth embarrassingly in front of everyone. Lucky for me, I was only a spectator.

Day 7: Early the next morning, we drove down the West Coast surrounded on one side by the ocean and mountains on the other. On the way we saw the Pancake Rock formations and "PuPu Springs," said to have the clearest water in the world. We arrived at the Fox glacier in time to check into the backpackers, eat dinner of vegetarian chili and corn-on-the-cob, watch Mrs. Doubtfire (since Erin had never seen it) and get a good night’s sleep.

Day 8: Easily my favorite day of the entire trip! 9:20am marked the beginning of our full-day guided tour of the Fox glacier. We were fitted with crampons, boots, warm clothing, rain jacket and pants, and an alpenstock. Since we had been blessed with fantastic weather for the previous week, the clouds were done with their holiday and proceeded to rain down all day. Although it was wet, I was so amping the whole time I didn’t even notice! Besides, it was way more epic that way. There was a 1.5hr hike to the glacier itself from the carpark, and along the way our guide, Grazer (short for Graham..weird…I know. Apparently in Australia, names are always shortened to one syllable. However, names that are already one syllable get another tacked on. Mark, for example, becomes Marco. Graham gets shortened to Gray…which becomes Grazer.) and Jared stopped to give us mini-geology lessons and glacier facts. It was a great group, being only 7 people and 2 guides, and we were all fit enough to tramp all over the glacier, through tunnels, up and down features. Grazer and Jared would cut ice-steps where needed, but walking in crampons became more comfortable as the day went on. We ate lunch under a parachute (like those you play in elementary school, where everyone sits on the inside edge so it forms a bubble) to keep out the rain and stay warm. It was just breathtaking. The colors of the ice- white, brilliant blues- crevasses, moulins, water flows, and rocks…were just amazing. It was unfortunately difficult to take pictures with the rain, but there are a few. Went to sleep that night (after watching LoR, since Erin had not seen that either) with sore calves from 1.5km of glacier awesomeness.

Day 9: Very early start, 7am departure to make it back to Dunedin by 3pm to return the car and attend 4pm lectures. We had incredible conversation on the drive home covering everything from religion, politics, sustainable energy and food.

Lovely trip, girls, one I will never forget!

University Games 2008

Uni games were held this year in Rotorua hosted by Waiariki (Why-reek-ee), on the North Island and about 16hrs away from Dunedin. I opted to join up with a carpool in order to see as much of the country as possible- and to save a bit of cash; domestic flights are not exactly cheap. The drivers were Dee and David of the Karate club, and joining us were Toby and (for part of the trip) Nick from debating. The drive went well enough, Dee and David have some sort of awkward history together, so they argued like a bitter married couple for most of it- usually entertaining. We spent the night each way in Wellington at a cute backpackers right near the ferry terminal, no complaints there. The ferry itself was a lot of fun- a three hour trip we made around midnight on the way up and mid-morning on the return. We (read: David) got somewhat lost on the way home and ended up adding 3 hours on the way to Wellington for a “scenic” roadway. All and all, it was….interesting.

(Coming into Picton on the South Island, the Interislander Ferry)

There is a local beer called Tui with the slogan “Yeah, right.” So all of their ads are quite witty. One in particular states: “Uni Games are about the sports. Yeah, right.” How true! It really was just an excuse for university students from all over the country (and some Aussies) coming together and, excuse me, having a shit-show. It was amazing that people competed and did athletic activities (let alone walk) after some of the nights they had.

One night, the competitors were able to able to do the street luge (http://www.skylineskyrides.co.nz/index.cfm/ssr_luge) for a reduced price. It was such a blast! It was dark, and pissing rain so we were completely soaked before we even started. The track we did was the intermediate I think, but it was fun to race other people down and splash through the puddles (read: flood) of water on the track.

There were 4 girls water polo teams present: Otago, Auckland, Victoria and AUT (Aussies). The only other time I played such aggressive polo was in Puerto Rico against their Jr. National team. Aggressive is not the right term- try vicious. First of all, there were no nail checks, which was painfully apparent when I would get out of the pool with my neck and chest covered in bloody scratches. Secondly, several players from Victoria and Auckland compete for NZ on an international level- which didn’t stop them from scratching and clawing anyway, but they did it while scoring.

We played well enough, considering we had never played as a team prior. The first game unfortunately reflected that and we got stomped, while looking like we were lost in the pool. Originally, we had a 13 person team, which turned into 7 for various reasons. I had been diligent with swimming regularly before the Games, but many did not and playing Ironman took its toll on several of the girls. The second and third games went really well, we played more like a team, pulled out some good plays, and won. During the semis and finals, both our lack of subs and some seriously atrocious referees resulted in the glamorous position of 4^th of 4. May I add that I am not just being a sore loser by blaming the refs- all teams (including the men’s) were loudly complaining about inconsistent and blatantly bad calls being made on the deck. I only added that because one of our players was rolled for throwing up her hands when a turnover was called where there shouldn’t have been (the girl on the other team commented on the bad call as well), which resulted in a 6 on 5 situation against us for the remainder of the game.

(Some of the Otago polo team in between games)

It wasn’t all as bad as it sounds, although we all were really gutted about that game. Overall, though, the polo was fun. I learned some new tricks and drills which will be fun to try out at UR.

Luckily, we only competed 2 of the 3 days, and I got to spend the third watching the Downhill MTB competition. The weather did not cooperate and rain was pissing down all day. The race was originally scheduled to be on the National Downhill track, but they moved it to prevent trail damage. The course was again shortened after a warm-up run to “Exit Track” which was a sad 1:40min long through torrential downpour and without any big jumps, drops or obstacles. As it turned out, a XC rider on a XC bike won the DH race- which was disappointing I’m sure for guys on their long-travel rigs who had to pedal on the shortened track. But, I ended up running along the trail in between riders with two other observers and got to see some really cool bikes/riders- not to mention completely soaked. I can’t complain too much.

(Some of the DH bikes, and Chris' Superlight (white) before the race and the rain)

(after the race, during the rain)

There were opening and closing ceremonies with bands and lots of shouting uni students, and one night I even won an oversized T-Shirt at a bar. Oh, and Rotorua smells like sulfur.

(The roadtrip gang! Toby, David, Dee and me)

(At the closing ceremonies, wearing our Otago team vests: Matt, Chris, Dee and me)

Since I'm actually here to study...

I realize that it has been a month since my last post, and for that I am sorry. Not only do I have to try and remember everything, but I have to write a lot all at once…ugh!

Made it half way through midterms (for some reason, my midterm stuff is lasting almost a month), busted up the curve on my BioAnthro test and walked out of a testing room with 500+ people first during my Cell/Molec test- which was super easy. Thank you Dr. April Hill, since much of the test was genetics.

Now for the interesting stuff, or rather, now for all the ridiculous catching up and sleepless nights. I just had a 2 week break from school- the week of April 14 I spent in Rotorua for the University Games (see next blog) but had to miss lectures/lab, the second week was mid-semester break (see next next blog). Needless to say, I have a paper due Friday, a project due next Friday, plus 14 lectures to make up in notes. I’ll be fairly busy for a while, unfortunately not doing anything fun.

The project is in BioAnthro, but it is a forensic analysis and I am really excited. We will receive a human skeleton and have 2 days to put together a report covering everything from sex/age determination to possible cause of death. I know, you’re jealous.

My economics midterm was held the week I was in Rotorua, and could not be written at any other time. It was on a plussage system (25% of my final grade if the mark is higher than that of the final, otherwise it counts for 0%) and now my entire grade is based 100% on the final. Scary.

I have been doing “I Yengar” (spelling?) yoga sessions twice a week with several friends at Clubs and Socs for $3. I’ve really been enjoying it, and the instructor is phenomenal! We call him “Mr. Tenacity” because while we are holding postures he often encourages us with the word “tenacity!” He is an older guy who always wears super short and tight black shorts and a dress shirt. We recently found out his name was Wayne, and were sorely disappointed. Just not as epic. The class is, unfortunately, usually very large and so postures are often held for a very long period of time while he walks around the room. I’ve noticed big improvements in flexibility over the last few months.

Regardless of how much schoolwork and playtime I’ve had, there has been a lot of reading going on. It’s so great to be able to read novels again, since I feel like I haven’t done enough since starting university. I’m on book #14 of my trip! I got a Dunedin Public Library card so I’m cruising through them pretty fast; the most recent is called The Geography of Hope by Chris Turner- a global look at sustainability and current projects that are offering a light at the end of the doomsday-environmentalist tunnel. Very highly recommended for anyone interested in sustainable living (which should be everyone).

I am fully prepared to begin an organic vegetable garden, and look into some solar power when I get back to the states- anyone who wants to help/chat/brainstorm please let me know (more on sustainability in the semester break blog)